Tracy Silva Barbosa was born on 14 November 1977 in Taunton, Massachusetts to immigrant factory workers from the Azorean Islands of Portugal. The second child of three, Tracy displayed an early passion for the arts and an inclination toward abstract thought. Imbued with a sense of cultural contrast and an ambitious desire to pursue a career as an artist, Tracy attended The Massachusetts College of Art, where she entered the sculpture department and majored in glass. This course of study, which allowed access to many different facilities, provided the foundation for a process-oriented approach in her work. Early influences included Gustav Klimt, Donald Judd, and Gerhard Richter as well as more classical paradigms found in the Byzantine, Baroque, and Rococo periods.
As a student traveling to Japan, the young artist was taken by the aesthetic of asymmetry and the narrative quality found in Asian scroll paintings. Upon graduation Barbosa relocated to the San Francisco Bay area to work for John Lewis Glass. Over the next three years she worked closely with Mr. Lewis on a variety of projects including the Oklahoma City Memorial. After moving on to New York City, Tracy began to focus more on painting as a formal study method for her glass sculpture. Through this medium she discovered a new freedom, reflected in the prolific outturn of her paintings and sculptures for an increasingly enthusiastic contingent of collectors.
Tracy now lives and works in New York.
